A practical problem in employing embroidery machines to stitch designs and monograms on garments, bags and other finished and unfinished goods is locating on the workpiece the center of the area in which the embroidery is to be placed and then aligning it properly so that the final embroidered design or monogram is properly oriented. In one approach a garment is first marked with a pin to locate the center of the area to be embroidered and then is placed on a raised mounting plate or hoop jig. The marking requires that the garment be laid out for viewing and measuring before marking. Then after the marking it is transferred to the hoop jig, where the garment must be adjusted until the mark is in the center of the hoop and the garment is properly oriented on the hoop. These hoops used in machines are keyed hoops which only fit in their respective machines one way. Therefore, if the garment is not properly oriented in the hoop the machine will not embroider the design in the right orientation even though it is centered in the chosen area.
Proper orientation is difficult when the garment is obviously symmetrical and the design is to be centered. But there is even greater difficulty when the design is to be placed off-center, e.g. on a breast pocket; or when the garment or other goods are not easily alignable, e.g. a duffel bag. Large garments which can be opened and laid flat, and large flat goods, are difficult to maneuver on a conventional raised hoop jig: the goods flop over the sides and there is no way to gauge their position or align them with respect to the hoop.
Another problem that often arises is the slipping of backing pieces used as a backing to give body to the garment just where the embroidery stitching is to be placed. Typically a backing piece must be taped in position over the hoop between it and the garment to be embroidered. This requires periodically applying fresh tape, which is time consuming and expensive. In addition, when more than one backing piece is required the tape holds only one and allows the other to slip, causing alignment problems.